On December 1st and 2nd, EcoAgriculture Partners took our experience supporting landscape leaders to implement Integrated Landscape Management to the masses at the Global Landscapes Forum.
This annual event has become a great way for us to re-connect with partners, forge new alliances, and ensure that our tools and research are visible and therefore useful to as many implementing agencies as possible. Read on to discover, and even watch, many of the fascinating discussions we took part in throughout the weekend.
Territorial Development – Managing landscapes for the rural future
In this side event that kicked off the Global Landscapes Forum on Saturday morning, an impressive group of partners, convened by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and including FAO, OECD, CIRAD, EcoAgriculture Partners and the European Commission, all echoed one key message: holistic, place-based policy approaches are possible, necessary, and overdue. Read more.
Looking at the past to shape the Landscape Approach of the future
In this session on the afternoon of Day 2, we reflected on more than 15 years of experience advancing Integrated Landscape Management on the ground. CIFOR convened a powerhouse panel, and Terry Sunderland, of the University of British Columbia, kicked it off with an overview of the landmark science on landscape approaches and a call to “walk the talk.” Musonda Mumba of UN Environment, and Mirjam Ros-Tonen of University of Amsterdam, and Roderick Zagt of Tropenbos International, then joined Sara Scherr to present and discuss their experience putting landscape approaches to work on the ground. See more.
Agri-business partnerships for sustainable landscapes: leading examples brought out in discussion forum
This map identifies the locations of the seven case studies prepared for the Global Agri-business Alliance by EcoAgriculture Partners.
In this dynamic discussion forum, Sara Scherr presented lessons from a brand new series of case studies we produced with the Global Agri-business Alliance, along with a progress update on the Business for Sustainable Landscapes Action Agenda. A panel featuring representatives from Olam, Forum for the Future, Golden Agri-Resources, and IUCN discussed recent advances and key next steps to improve and increase business participation in landscape partnerships. Read the case studies.
Investing in the SDGs: modeling participatory scenarios to landscape finance opportunities
At the Inclusive Finance pavilion organized by the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative (full pavilion program, list of partners, and all session recordings here) EcoAgriculture Partners and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency shared how participatory scenarios can catalyze improved landscape management and planning in three landscapes around the world. Experts familiar with the ILM processes ongoing in two of those landscapes (in Honduras and Tanzania) shared what has happened since the scenario modeling work, pointing the way towards a fuller integration of the tool into the landscape finance process. More about this project
Lunch with LIFT – Discussing 1+ year of implementing the Landscape Investment and Finance Toolkit
In this session organized jointly by IUCN NL and EcoAgriculture Partners we heard from three organizations who have used LIFT as part of their Integrated Landscape Management process in the past year, and explore how their experience could strengthen the tool and the help smooth the process of securing finance for the activities central to achieving the goals of an Integrated Landscape Management plan more broadly. Stay tuned for a blog post summarizing lessons learned.
Could an outcomes-based Landscape Standard drive finance to the right people and places?
Verra, the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) and Rainforest Alliance got together at the Inclusive Finance pavilion to put on this engaging discussion that introduced the Landscapes Standard, the process the partnership behind it is using to develop and test it, and to face tough questions from a highly engaged audience about what a standard like this could accomplish. The discussion was moderated by EcoAgriculture Partners’ Director of Communications & Strategic Partnerships, Louis Wertz. EcoAgriculture Partners has joined the team developing the standard, so stay tuned for much more on this promising project!
A Landscape Working Group within the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC)
The Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation includes some of the world’s largest and most influential financial institutions and develops “financial blueprints” for investments that generate conservation outcomes. In this session in the Inclusive Finance Pavilion, EcoAgriculture Partners, IUCN NL, and the Conservation Finance Alliance led a conversation that explored potential Terms of Reference for CPIC’s newest working group, on Landscapes Finance. What are the most effective ways to shift the behemoth that is private finance to support sustainable landscapes? We spent a delightful hour chewing on this meaty topic with a very engaged audience.
Launch of the Landscape Academy
Sara Scherr (EcoAgriculture Partners/LPFN), Cora van Oosten (GLF), Musonda Mumba (UN Environment), Hedwig Bruggeman (Wageningen UR), Pooja Munshi (GLF), and Parashina Lampat (SORALO) (left to right) launch the Landscape Academy Saturday December 1st at GLF Bonn. Photo by Pilar Valbuena/GLF.
Incubated within the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative; grown by a coalition between Wageningen University, ICRAF, African Model Forest Network, and EcoAgriculture Partners; and now stewarded by GLF, UN Environment and Wageningen; the Landscape Academy is the first purpose-built online training platform on landscape approaches, and it debuted on Saturday at the GLF. It soon had received nearly 1000 course registrations! EcoAgriculture Partners is an author of much of the content within the courses on Landscape Leadership and Landscape Finance. Learn more.
Charter Members launch GLF charter in closing plenary
Group photo following the GLF Bonn Closing Remarks: Moving Beyond Words. Global Landscapes Forum, Bonn, Germany. Photo by Pilar Valbuena/GLF
On the Friday before GLF, the 20+ Charter Members of the Global Landscapes Forum met to discuss the GLF’s 2019 plan of action. Then on Sunday, during the closing plenary, the leaders of those organizations appeared in a video address and celebrated the signing of the GLF Charter in a brief ceremony onstage.
Plenary: Mobilizing Collective Action
EcoAgriculture President Sara J. Scherr moderated this packed session featuring leaders from the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), the Global Evergreening Alliance, Kyoto University, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Many pointed to the progress that’s been made already: thousands of groups, pages and pages of research, numerous tools and trials are evidence that landscape approaches work, and are in fact the best way forward to achieve the SDGs. Each of the panelists also offered ways in which they are strengthening collective action to implement Integrated Landscape Management.
Stay tuned for additional videos and posts
In the weeks to come we will be sharing more takeaways from the GLF, as well as project updates, new publications, and more. It’s a busy December for us, to match a busy 2018. Check back often!